Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 3.djvu/505

 affluent the Sankuru, and sub-affluent the Lo-Mami, offers the most direct route from the Lower to the Upper Congo. Pierre de Brazza has opened the navigation of the Alima, which has already become a busy commercial highway; Jacque de Brazza, Dolisie, Ponel, Van Géle, and Grenfell have penetrated from Opposite sides into the Nkheni, Li-Kwalla, Bunga, and U-Banghi valleys; the same indefatigable Grenfell has ascended the Tchuapa, the Ikelemba, the Lu-Longo, the Mungala, and the Itimbiri.

The least known section of the Congo basin is at present the north-eastern

region, which of all others offers the greatest geographical interest, and which will probably one day prove to be the most important, for here is situated the water-parting between the Nile and Congo basins. But even here Junker's exploration of the Welle to within 120 miles in a straight line of the Congo valley, no longer leaves any doubt that this-river belongs to the Conga sates and that through it will sooner or later be opened the route to the White Nile.

Thanks to Junker's surveys, a rough calculation may already be made of the actual extent of this vast fluvial system, which according to Léon Metchnikov is